Leaders of the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services called Mike Lappen in on March 30, 2026, and requested that he resign from his position as administrator of the county’s Behavioral Health Services division. He had been in charge of a $216 million operation that helps some of the county’s most vulnerable citizens, including those dealing with mental illness, drug addiction, and psychiatric crises, for almost ten years. The department did not respond to Lappen’s question about why. Simply put, it had chosen to take “another direction.”
In this story, the phrase “another direction” is very effective. Typically, directions include a destination. It is noteworthy that no county leader has made a public offer of one.
In an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel following his departure, Lappen, 54, described the circumstances in a calm manner. He expressed his pride in his team’s achievements. He gave credit to the caseworkers, describing them as crucial but underpaid. He said he thought the system was in better shape when he left. That didn’t sound like a man who had received any particular information about his performance or future. It sounded like a man who had been shown the door and was still unsure of what had really happened, but he was processing it with some dignity.
It is worthwhile to carefully consider the timing. Less than a year has passed since the resignation of Dr. John Schneider, the division’s chief medical officer and psychiatrist who had worked there since 2014. Schneider’s departure in July 2025 came after a major institutional failure: BHS had released Amando Lang, a Greenfield man who had been charged with homicide in 2019 and found not competent to stand trial due to mental illness, back into the community without informing the Milwaukee County district attorney’s office as required by state law. Schneider quit after the mistake was made public. The internal audit of BHS’s civil commitment procedures that followed was headed by Lappen. The Quality Committee of the Mental Health Board received the audit results in closed session in September 2025. The board subsequently issued a statement stating that corrective measures were being carried out. Six months after overseeing the accountability process for someone else’s failure, Lappen has been asked to leave without providing an explanation.
All of this might be completely unrelated to the audit and the Lang incident. At bureaucratic institutions, personnel decisions are made for a variety of reasons that are never fully disclosed to the public. Shakita LaGrant-McClain, the department director, declined to comment on the situation, stating only that the county is attempting to guarantee a seamless change of leadership. That’s the institutional language of someone who has chosen to keep her knowledge to herself. It’s unclear if what she’s not saying has to do with budget disputes, political unrest, performance issues, or something else entirely.
Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Services: Key Facts
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Person | Mike Lappen, 54 |
| Role | Administrator, Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Services (BHS) division |
| Tenure | May 2016 – March 30, 2026 (approximately 10 years) |
| Resignation Date | March 30, 2026 |
| Nature of Departure | Asked to resign; no explanation given |
| Salary at Resignation | $179,000 |
| BHS Annual Budget (2026) | ~$216 million |
| BHS Deficit (2025) | ~$13 million |
| Previous Role | Director, Ozaukee County Department of Human Services |
| Department Head | Shakita LaGrant-McClain, Director, Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services |
| County Executive | David Crowley |
| Previous High-Profile Departure | Dr. John Schneider, Chief Medical Officer/Medical Director — resigned July 2025 |
| Schneider Context | Resigned shortly after BHS failed to notify courts when a man charged with homicide (Amando Lang) was released |
| Amando Lang Case | Lang, 25, found incompetent due to mental illness in 2019 homicide case; released March 2025 without DA notification |
| Key Achievement | Mental Health Emergency Center on North 12th Street; community walk-in clinics; crisis intervention programs |
| System Transition | Shifted from institutional, emergency-focused model to community-based “No Wrong Door” model |
| Criticism of Shift | Some families say it has become too difficult to get loved ones committed for inpatient treatment |
| Staff Training | 3,400+ staff attended innovation-related programs (NUHS reference — not applicable here; correct: BHS has caseworkers and clinic staff) |
| Mental Health Board Chair | Kathy Bottoni |
| Mental Health Board Member | Mary Neubauer |
| Key Reference — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | Milwaukee County’s chief of mental health services asked to resign — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel |
| Key Reference — Urban Milwaukee | Head of County Mental Health Agency Abruptly Resigns — Urban Milwaukee |
The financial picture is evident. Eleven days prior to Lappen’s dismissal, on March 19, the Mental Health Board Finance Committee met to discuss possible service reductions in response to a $13 million deficit from the previous year. BHS has been under pressure for a while due to decreasing federal funding and growing expenses. Lappen supported the division’s shift from a centralized, institution-based model to a community-centered one, which included creating walk-in clinics and mobile crisis teams throughout Milwaukee’s neighborhoods. However, this change will require ongoing funding, which the current financial climate may not be able to provide. Even though the exact relationship between the budget crisis and the leadership change hasn’t been made public, there is a sense that they are connected.
After managing the Department of Human Services in Ozaukee County, Lappen moved to Milwaukee in 2016. At the time, Milwaukee County was in disarray due to a number of temporary behavioral health directors, a county-run mental health facility embroiled in scandals, and a state-mandated transfer of control to a newly established mental health board. Lappen was brought in to stabilize the situation and implement a comprehensive overhaul of the county’s mental health care system. He was in charge of the old mental health complex’s closure, the development of a Mental Health Emergency Center on North 12th Street, a specialized emergency room for psychiatric crises created in collaboration with nearby hospitals, and the growth of walk-in clinics in the community that were intended to serve patients before they required hospitalization.
National observers have praised the community-based model. It has also been criticized. The shift toward early intervention and outpatient care, according to some families, has made it more difficult to get loved ones committed for inpatient psychiatric treatment when the circumstances warrant it. This conflict has frequently come up in public hearings and in news reports about cases where individuals in acute psychiatric crises were unable to receive the level of care their families felt they required.
It’s difficult to ignore the fact that the county doesn’t currently have a confirmed replacement for Lappen and, according to Urban Milwaukee, hadn’t even started looking for one when he separated. With a $216 million budget, a $13 million deficit, and hundreds of thousands of residents served, the mental health system is currently without a permanent leader as it enters what may be a major period of restructuring. Mental health board member Mary Neubauer stated she was notified of Lappen’s resignation but was unable to provide any additional comment. That kind of statement indicates that the organization is still trying to figure out what went wrong and how to respond to it.
“Bureaucrats don’t always make great decisions until they get a chance to hear from the people,” was one of Lappen’s cautious but subtly revealing final remarks. It is up to the listener to determine whether he meant that as a general observation about institutional decision-making or as something more specific about the choice made about him.
